Wednesday, February 9, 2011

All Eisenberg, All the Time

The Social Network

2010. USA. Directed by David Fincher. Watchdate: 11/12/2011.

The Social Network was very entertaining with a few great moments. The script was terrific, and Fincher's direction was workmanlike if not nearly as inspired as in his early movies. I think he tried to replicate his awesome Fight Club soundtrack trick where he perfectly synced up "Where Is My Mind?" by the Pixies with Tyler Durden exploding the credit industry. But unfortunately, as appropriate as The Beatles' "Baby You're a Rich Man" was to use in this movie, syncing it up with Mark Zuckerberg refreshing his browser somehow didn't come off as quite as dramatically. I guess clicking the keyboard on laptop is never going to be quite as cool as fiery conflagerations. Nothing Fincher could have done about that. I also really enjoy Jesse Eisenberg as an actor. He's not flashy but he really pulls you into the internal conflicts of his characters. A lot has been said about the opening sequence and while I agree that it was very well done, I think my favorite may have been the scene where the Winklevoss twins go complain to Larry Summers. The guy who plays Summers was really excellent, did a great job with a small but significant part.

I saw this at exactly the right moment in my life. It's a very understated, earnest romance with an equal measure of dramatic and comedic elements - it's really nothing like how it was advertised which definitely threw me off at first. It's not quite a great movie, but it really clicked with me. Also, very good soundtrack dominated by Lou Reed/The Velvet Underground. And Eisenberg, again!